The tremors dislodged rocks on the side of a mountain in the district of Burka, bringing them crashing down on houses below and killing between 80 and 90 people, said Munshi Majid, the governor of Baghlan.

Two bulldozers are working to recover the bodies of the dead and clear the rubble, he said.

Majid will travel to the area with a delegation from Kabul. He said that if it's not possible to dig out all the bodies from under the rockfall, the area will become the burial site for the victims, and funeral prayers will be performed on site.

He said it was unlikely that there were any survivors from the disaster.

Two other districts in Baghlan were also affected by the quake: Jilga and Nahrin.